Cruel Summer, Steve Harrington

3. cracked codes

   WHAT AM I even supposed to be looking for?" asked Steve annoyedly as he continued to stare at the people of Starcourt Mall through binoculars. It was the next day and he and Dustin had decided to try and search for the evil Russians.

   "Russian spies." replied Dustin.

   "That's the thing, Henderson, I've never actually seen a Russian spy before." said Steve. "I mean, what do they even look like?"

   Dustin sighed. "I don't know, tall, blond, not smiling." he said. "Anyone suspicious, with a duffel bag or—or with an earpiece—"

   "Duffel bag, got it." said Steve as he looked around. When he spotted two teenagers from his old high school flirting on the second floor, he scoffed. "What!"

   Dustin's eyes widened, alarmed. "What is it? What do you see?"

   Steve shook his head. "Seriously? It's Anne Moskin with Patrick Lewinsky—why? He never even got off the bench—"

   Dustin rolled his eyes. "Steve! What are you doing?"

   Steve lowered the binoculars and met Dustin's eyes. "What?" he asked.

   Dustin ran a hand over his face. "You're not supposed to be looking for a girlfriend, okay? I don't even know why you would considering the best option is right in front of you."

   Steve flushed red. "I swear to god, man, if you say Ru—"

   "Ruby." said Dustin casually. "Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. It's Ruby."

   Steve's back slumped slightly as he kept his eyes on the people ahead of him, yet he remained completely distracted. "That's over. It has been for months, man."

   "Yeah, and whose fault is that?"

   Steve shot him a glare but it didn't affect the Henderson boy in any way. "Shut up." he said. "I know it was my fault."

   "You literally told her you were still in love with Nancy—she'll never get over that, you do realize that, don't you?" Dustin said annoyedly. He felt as if Ruby was a sister to him and he didn't like it one bit that she hurt because of Steve.

   The Harrington boy sighed defeatedly. He knew he'd messed up with Ruby. "Yeah, I do, man, okay. I try to make it up to her—I've told her a thousand times I never liked Nancy after we broke up. Ever. Again. But it's like she doesn't want to believe me."

   "Can you blame her?" asked Dustin. "She trusted you with, like, everything and then you threw that away because you wanted to protect her—?"

   "I know, okay?" snapped Steve. "I was there, I did it—I remember."

   "Do...do you still like her?"

   "I love her, man." he replied sadly, staring at his shoes because he couldn't bring himself to look at Dustin, knowing he'd probably be even more disappointed than Steve was. "I loved—love her so much and it's fucking torture. You should've seen it, she was flirting with this worthless piece of shit that didn't deserve even a single part of her and it made me so angry. Because I know I screwed up but I can't get over her. It's like she's the only thing that can bring me back to life and until then I'm—I'm dead."